ANCYL demands regulation of spaza shops amid growing food safety crisis

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) is ramping up efforts to address what it calls a “food safety crisis” in townships, villages and towns by calling for strict regulations on spaza shops.

The call comes after deaths attributed to contaminated food sold at informal retail outlets which have predominantly affected children.

The ANCYL has launched a petition demanding that authorities regulate spaza shops more effectively.

“We are calling on municipalities to enforce bylaws and ensure all spaza shops in our areas are registered,” said league spokesperson Collen Malatji.

“We are also calling that all spaza shop businesses must be set aside only for South African youth, and government must put aside funding or support small businesspeople to open the tuckshops, creating opportunities for employment and business growth.”

Mntuwoxolo Ngudle, ANCYL secretary-general, urged the public to support their petition launched on Change.org.

“We call on all South Africans to join us in our petition where we call on the authorities to regulate spaza shops so we don’t contaminate our food [with pesticides] and kill our people through illicit goods and illicit trade,” he said.

Ngudle emphasised the urgency of passing legislation under the Disaster Management Act to address the risks posed by unregulated spaza shops.

“We need local authorities, provincial legislatures and the National Assembly to pass legislation very quickly under the Disaster Act to save our people from the scourge of food poisoning.”

In the petition, the ANCYL outlines its demands, which include a youth-friendly quota for spaza shops in every area, an audit of spaza shops by all municipalities, with a call for transparency on how many are owned by foreign nationals, and for spaza shops owned by undocumented foreigners to be shut down and the individuals deported.

The campaign comes after Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi revealed alarming statistics regarding food contamination in spaza shops.

Since January, there have been 23 confirmed deaths and 441 reported food contamination cases, with many victims children between the ages of six and 10.

“Seven postmortem results out of the 19 deaths tested positive for organophosphate [pesticides],” Lesufi disclosed during a recent media briefing.

The highest number of deaths has been reported in Johannesburg, followed by Ekurhuleni, with the West Rand also experiencing a number of suspected food poisoning incidents.

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